BanglaCricket Article

Cricket is a mental game. The sides that are mentally stronger, win more matches than the others. In other words, more wins make the sides more stronger mentally.

Belief

by F Waliullah

Published: 28th March, 2004

Cricket is a mental game. The sides that are mentally stronger, win more matches than the others. In other words, more wins make the sides more stronger mentally.

On most occassions, when a stronger test playing nation beats a weaker test nation, how come the stronger sides are able to beat the weaker sides comfortably? Even when the stronger teams are in really bad form, not winning against other stronger teams than they are; and yet they are able to beat teams weaker than they are. Why is that?

The only reason that is notable in these cases is that the stronger teams believe that they can beat the weaker teams and consequently, the weaker teams believe that they cannot beat the stronger teams everytime they get to meet them.

Take the case of Bangladesh, for example. Bangladesh was swimming in the ocean of losers for a very long time. Suddenly, they had swam across the ocean of hardship and then reached the shore. How come?

If we go back a few months, we'll see what the Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar had said before his maiden trip to Zimbabwe as the skipper of the side. He said 'confidently' that 'our side will win one match on tour of Zimbabwe'. As he believed in what he said, and as his fellow team mates also believed in his words, with a bit of fortune, Bangladesh were able to beat Zimbabwe in a very competitive match, after a long time.

But having said all that, why couldn't Habibul Bashar turn the maiden ODI victory as a test playing nation into a maiden series victory; even after having the advantage in all the other matches? For example, why we were not able to beat Zimbabwe in the first test match in Harare?

The reason behind this is as simple as the plain water. Habibul Bashar does not believe that we can win a test match; and he didn't say so to the media. Also, nobody in the team had believed that we have the capability of winning a test match, so we lost, beaten quite comprehensively.

For the time being, we have to keep our eyes opened and see what Habibul Bashar, the captain of the Bangladesh team believes about the much stronger test sides than Zimbabwe; and if he believes that we can win a one-day match or two in the up-coming series, then we definitely have a chance to beat West Indies in West Indies, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and India at home in the One-Dayers. Not to mention the fact that there is the Asia Cup coming up as well as the ICC Champion's trophy when we'll meet stronger teams not once, but twice, as well as Hong Kong.

For the far future, we have to look out for a future captain among the youngsters in the side who not only believe that we can win a One-Day match or a series, but also a test match or a series, against stronger opponents.